Tuesday, January 17, 2012

A Day with the Endangered

We started the day in Kaplan, LA at the
Sunnyside Motel...it was not sunny

White Lake in south LA;
home to the whooping crane project

Me, Mr. Bob, his son, Mark, and Lee all went to
see the cranes

With Sara, the crane coordinator of the project

We arrived at the site, and these young cranes soon
appeared...breathtaking

As the landed, you can see their leg bands that
identify them. These young birds still have some
of their brown feathers. When they mature, they will be
all white

This is an adult male from the program last year. He
still stays around the compound

These are the blinds that we observed the birds from...
very nice. We had to be quiet and fairly still so we
would not disturb them

Sara donned her "crane habit" and entered to restock their
food. They eat a pellet with all the nutrients, etc that they
need. They are making every attempt to keep the birds as
wild as they can.

This is the adult male again, preening. They develop
the red marking on their head when they mature. He
was about 4-5 feet tall.

This was our transportation coming and going, very
nice ride

Mr. Bob had always wanted to see the whooping cranes in
person, and planned to go to Aransas Pass, Texas. When
he learned that this new program was here in the state,
he was able to arrange for us all to go. They are not necessarily
letting many people in there, but were considerate enough
to allow us today.
These cranes come from Maryland, where they are hatched, and
then transported here to White Lake. They are acclamated inside
the marsh enclosure gradually, and begin to venture out as they
mature. This is the second year of the experiment. The goal is
to establish a non-migrating flock. There are only about 300
living whooping cranes in the world. When I was growing up
in Texas, there were only 15! They have made some great strides
in trying to help this species recover. It was thrilling to get
to see them, and encouraging to know that passionate people
are there trying to help them.

Trip to Scandinavia

2017 Trip

I have scheduled our trip for 2017. We are going to tour the capitals of all the Scandinavian countries. The trip departs on June 22 and is 2 weeks. You can check it out on www.goaheadtours.com Just search for Scandinavia, and it will come up. I will be sketching and painting along the way, as we sight see and tour these interesting countries. It will be a "cool" getaway for those of us in the South in the summer! Let me know if you think you might want to go with us. If you sign up early, you can make payments all year long. Email me or contact me at the gallery, or on Facebook: Gail Hindelang Shelton

Koi Story

Spring Cleaning

About Me

Artist's Statement

I love painting and drawing. I have been doing it since childhood. I try to paint or draw something every day. I also do a lot of photography. I still teach art, and serve as a group coordinator for

Go Ahead Tours, taking groupson trips all over the world, painting subjects I find along the way. This blog may contain

current things I am working on,

as well as documentation of my

trips and escapades.

I work in a variety of media including pencil, ink, watercolor, colored pencil, pastel, and digital photography. I will be offering some of my originals and prints for sale on this blog. You can email me, or call the gallery if you are interested in a piece.They are also available at the Pea Patch Gallery in Winnfield.